Work on the MCVs continues. Weathering is my normal method of oils for the bodies followed by a dusting of pastel chalk for the underframes and the bodies. To protect the pastel chalk, the wagons have also had a light spray of matt acrylic varnish but this does have the side effect of reducing the contrast of the pastels so some more work is still required.

As I've said before, none of them will ever be award winners but they'll fit just fine in to the overall picture.

I love the weathering on those wagons. I have thought of using oils but haven't got around to it yet. Any chance of a few words on how you went about it?

I found the best way to avoid the magnets repelling each other was to make up the pipes in pairs, glued to the outer ends of two magnets. Do this on a couple of wagons and check which ends attract and mark them. The real thing had coloured patches, which I think denoted which year the pipes were next tested. The patches were blue and brown, probably denoting odd and even years. (This was how we knew when to test hose in the fire brigade) I therefore mark the attracting pipes with the same colour. If you do this with each wagon as you fit the pipes, you should find that like coloured patches will always attract. Hope this helps.

Thanks for asking, my IBS has flared up pretty badly in the last few weeks leaving me in a very much can't be bothered mood but I'm also undertaking some demolition of walls in the house so full scale modelling is taking precedence.

Porcy Mane wrote:Two Morton four shoe retro vac fitted 9ft w/b 16tonners, one with tiebar, one without. The nearest to camera with the "Coal16 VB" branding.https://flic.kr/p/THh3Tn

Sorry, but the marking on the door of the one without a tiebar should show that it has two vacuum cylinders and a change over lever, which means it's an 8-shoe clasp brake vehicle. It's very difficult to be sure from the photo, but the visible brake lever seems consistent with this and there certainly seems to be less daylight under it than the 4-shoe Morton version.

It has been almost seven months since I've done any 'real' modelling at all albeit I have been working on track plans in Templot but the other night, I got a wagon out and have finally finished the weathering on my SPA from the Cambrian kit:

John Donnelly wrote:It has been almost seven months since I've done any 'real' modelling at all albeit I have been working on track plans in Templot but the other night, I got a wagon out and have finally finished the weathering on my SPA from the Cambrian kit:

As well as working on my own P4 version of South Pelaw which will soon have a permanent home meaning I can properly crack on with it, I'm also involved with a group of EM gauge modellers who have built their own version of junction as it was in the last 50s and early 60s which can be seen here: http://southpelawem.blogspot.com/

I've been tasked with making some colliery tipper wagons which, from the limited information we have a few photos of them from a distance look very much like the RT Models tipper but with buffer beams rather than dumb buffers.

The wagons got their base coat last night:

and I've started detail painting today with a mix of acrylics and pastel chalk:

I did see the EM version of South Pelaw Junction at Newcastle this year and thought it superb in all aspects. Anyone remembering the area from the 1960's was bound to be impressed. It fascinated in all aspects of its operation, particularly the signalling and train make up and scenically captured the down trodden every day quality of the period and a proper railway built for freight.

Good to see more progress being made on the wagon front,really nice work, I have been busy building wagons for my Wemyss layout - mainly NCB ones. I will post some up soon on my own thread. looking forward to seeing how your own version of the Junction comes along.

Hi John, these are superb and I assume for the colliery tip. Are they compensated or not from the underside it is not entirely clear? We have had problems in the past with some of the smaller wagons on Burntisland, in terms of running, most of the problems have now been resolved, but I am assuming these will be more for decoration given the location. The photograph also shows the attention to detail on the layout in terms of the vegetation on the banking. There must also be miles of fencing which also is very convincing.

Thanks again Allan. Yes, they are for the tip end of the colliery sidings and, as such, won't be required to move so there is no compensation. Just need to make up the chains for the couplings and they'll be done.

As for the fencing, there is an awful lot of it, all the work of one man and still more to be done.

Looks like one of my contributions to the layout will be heading in the electronic direction and, to that end, I built this last night:

It is a MERG USB Computer Intefrace Module but, beyond that, at this point I have absolutely no idea what it does but I'm learning slowly...

I have no electronic background at all, but I am adding in some to my layout being a MERG member I like to learn new stuff, it does keep your mind exercised. I prefer electro-mechanical items as normally you can see a fault quickly and hopefully rectify it at exhibitions if necessary. If something packs in electronically it cannot always be seen, or if programming is lost for some reason I do not want to be having to re-program when at a show, different perhaps if your layout is up in the house somewhere. Interestingly most of our local MERG members have layouts permanently set up in the house.

Exhibition layouts have to be robust enough to travel distances being banged about in a van. I was once put in the back of a truck on the short distance of a few miles to see just how much things moved around even at 30 mph. (Not something I would wish to repeat.) It was amazing just how much movement there was in what we thought was a well packed vehicle and how even heavy sections could bounce up and down when a pothole was hit.

Since my son will probably inherit my railways I have deliberately kept things simple to operate and repair as he has only basic electrical knowledge and ideas on how to maintain the layout. With other layouts which were fitted with servo 4 boards we have lost the programming for example and they needed reprogramming - in one case the computer had been left at home. I am using the simpler servo units for the new layout I am working on just now as an alternative to tortoises. There is no perfect solution, if using electro-mechanical means they all seem to have some flaw. At least with the servos the flaw seems to be servo creep, which with the simpler MERG system can be adjusted at exhibitions if it goes out over the show. I am putting my adjusters in easy to reach places from above the board, just in case.

I have no objections at all and am often impressed with what some others can achieve, but it is often the case that they have had proper training in this field. My friend Mike who has a magnificent model of Preston which he has been building with a couple of friends over the last 25 years has amazing talents this way as anyone who has been to his layout will testify, but that was his job in real life in the Preston area. My own training was as an artist so my leanings are more that way - so my own aim is to get things to look and feel right and operate simply, but well.

One of the reasons I'm getting involved is that, with a 40' * 15' exhibition layout that is entirely dependent on MERG modules, there needs to be more than one person who knows that they are doing should something go wrong although we've been lucky on the two outings we've had so far.

For my own version I'm currently torn between the MERG route or some of the DCC Concepts stuff. I have no plans to exhibit the layout (at least not for now) so ultimate robustness isn't as much of an issue.

I did go to S4N on the Saturday and although I had hoped to meet quite a few friends I still managed to miss out on a few meetings, which was unfortunate.

I thought that the show was very good this year and it was good to see so many good operating layouts working away, even if a few were still to be finished. I am hoping to bring Scott's Road next year as I hope to have it more or less complete by then. I have not been posting much recently, as I had about a month when I was not at all well and was falling behind, but I have now recovered. I have had a few things to deal with recently, however I have been working on stock and now have about 90 NCB wagons operational and am finishing off half a dozen engines at the moment. Then there will be nothing done for a couple of months as I will have some scenic work to do on Burntisland and will also have to do the illustrations for my next children's adventure book which I am hoping will get published before Christmas. So It will then be September before I manage to get any more layout building done - hoping to complete by January.

I will try to post some photos of the stock during this period if I can find the time and follow up with some photos of the engines when they are finished, they have been waiting on painting as I am down to do some demonstrations of painting over the coming months.

This is the first time I have been on the forum since S4N and just catching up.

Following a tip from the owner of my local model shop, Durham Trains of Stanley, I am now the very proud owner of these, a full rake of loaded Tyne Dock to Consett iron ore hoppers. Built from the Dave Bradwell kit, they are superbly built, painted and weathered (although I will do a bit more with the weathering) with loads of real iron ore. They also have a very clever, but simple, coupling mechanism that allow all the pipework between the wagons to look like it is all connected. The bogies are sprung but they are currently OO so need a set of P4 wheels.

Not cheap but, for what they are and knowing how much work they take to make, I reckon they are an absolute bargain and one that I simply couldn't pass up...